The Best of the B1G, #14 Devin Gardner

Devin officially takes over being the starting qb of the Wolverines this year. Having started the final 5 games for the Maize and Blue last year for an injured Denard Robinson, Gardner inherits the full time leadership role due to Robinson’s departure. Gardner changed the dynamics of Michigan’s offense running Brady Hoke’s pro style offense. While Robinson was pretty much a pure running QB Gardner is a dual threat but more of a passer.

Devin showed in the final five games he has a strong arm, completing 75 passes out of 126 attempts,passing for 1,219 yards and accounting for 22 touchdowns (threw for 11 td’s). Giving him a QB Rating of 161.7 percent averaging 243.8 yards passing a game. He also threw 5 INTS one in each contest. Gardner only ran for 100 yards in those 5 games averaging 2.1 yards per carry. If he played in all 13 games he would have had over 3000 yards passing easily.

Gardner is projected as the third best quarterback in the B1G behind Ohio State’s Braxton Miller and Nebraska’s Taylor Martinez. Devin is going to be facing a tougher B1G schedule than those two QB’s. Having to face 5 of the B1G’s projected top secondaries out of his 8 conference games. Miller and Martinez only have 2 match-ups against those same projections.

Devin Gardner is going to be the key to Michigan’s chances of being a championship caliber team as he states they are. His touchdown/interception ratio for the five games he started were good being 11/5 but he has a problem holding on to the football. He showed last season against Ohio State’s defense, which should be better, he struggled only throwing (season lows) for 171 yards, one touchdown, and one interception. If Devin cuts down on his turnovers he could be inserting his name into the Heisman talk. He is lucky in having his LT Taylor Lewan (one of the best in the NCAA) coming back to protect his blind side.

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